Much ado about nothing. Beaumont and Fletcher, Shakespeare, and others, use the phrase. Fiddlesticks! as an exclamation, means rubbish! nonsense! When the prince and his merry companions are at the Boars Head, first Bardolph rushes in to warn them that the sheriffs officers are at hand, and anon enters the hostess to put her guests on their guard. But the prince says, Heres a devil of a row to make about a trifle (or The devil rides on a fiddlestick) (1 Henry IV., ii. 2), and hiding some of his companions, he stoutly faces the sheriffs officers and brow beats them.